Minnesota Local Campaign Finance: How to Find Who Donates to City & County Officials

Where Minnesota local campaign finance filings live

Minnesota has two different campaign-finance systems, and which one applies depends on the office. State and county-level officials file with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (CFB). But most local offices — city council, school board, town board — file with the filing officer of the government itself, under Minnesota Statutes chapter 211A. That means a city council candidate's finance report is usually held by the city clerk, and a school board candidate's report is held by the school district.

This split is the single biggest reason local campaign finance is hard to follow in Minnesota: there is no one website. LocalGov Ledger links to the filings we have found for each official and summarizes the latest report period factually, with the source for every figure.

What a Minnesota local campaign finance report contains

Under Minn. Stat. 211A.02, a candidate or committee must file reports that include, at minimum:

• Receipts — every contribution, with the donor's name, address, and amount. Loans and in-kind contributions are included.
• Disbursements — every expenditure, with the payee and purpose.
• Summary totals — total raised, total spent, and cash on hand for the reporting period.

Reports are filed on a schedule set by the statute: before an election, shortly after, and annually in non-election years. Late filings can trigger a fine. The reports are public data — anyone can inspect them.

How to trace a donor to the officials they support

The value of campaign finance data is in connecting donors to officials. On this site, each person's profile shows:

• Their campaign finance filings, linked to the source.
• Documented contributions, with donor name, amount, and date.
• Any documented relationship between a donor and a government that person serves — for example, a donor who also holds a contract with the county. These are shown as two public facts placed side by side, not as an allegation.
• Family ties, where a household member of the official has a financial relationship with a government they serve.

You can also browse by government to see all the officials and donors associated with a single city or county.

County commissioners and the CFB

County commissioners (and other officials covered by the state economic-interest law) file Statements of Economic Interest with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board. These list the official's sources of income, real property, and certain business interests. We link to both the CFB's live page and an Internet Archive copy where one exists, and summarize what each statement lists year by year. The CFB does not allow automated retrieval, so we do not collect from its site directly — we link to it.

School boards: a gap in the law

School board members are not covered by Minnesota's economic-interest disclosure requirement. A 2025 bill to extend the requirement to school board members was laid over in committee and did not become law. So while you can find school board meeting records and votes here, you will not find disclosure filings for school board members. Their campaign finance reports (chapter 211A) are still public and filed with the school district.

If you have a filing we are missing

Many local filings are never put online at all — they sit in a filing cabinet at city hall. If you have obtained a campaign finance report or statement of economic interest for a Minnesota local official, you can submit it here. We will link it to the official's profile, cite the source, and credit you (or keep you anonymous) per our contributor policy.